


false resets

by TheArtCat



Category: Glitch Techs (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Neglect, Found Family, Getting Outed, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, getting kicked out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24655867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArtCat/pseuds/TheArtCat
Summary: Mitch gets pretty much adopted by Phil, two years before the show, after getting kicked out of his house.update: this fic was posted before season 2 and therefore in the universe I was writing this, the furious four did not exist. (sorry guys.) I dunno if you guys will still read it even if Mitch's family is completely different than in canon, but you're welcome to anyway!
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	1. late calls and pancakes

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading this fic, it means a lot! Mitch is gonna get a bit ooc this chapter, but that's because he's pretty fucking depressed right now. This takes place two years before the start of the show and is only going to get to the current time when Miko shows up in case you were worried it was going to be flashbacks the whole time. Do tell me if you have anything to suggest in the fic and have fun reading!

It was at about 10 PM that Phil got woken up by a call. He sat up tiredly and reached over to his phone on the bedside table. 

"Phil here, what’s the problem?" 

He heard a sob on the other end. "H-hey boss. Remember that time you told me to call if I needed anything?" Crap, he knew where this was going. He wasn’t an idiot; he saw the way Mitch flinched when someone would come too close to him. "Well, I need something. I can’t stay at home right now..." 

"Jesus, of course you can kiddo, stay as long as you want." He said, trying to be as comforting as possible. "Are you outside your building?" 

"No, my parents let me pack my bags... at least..." He heard banging on the wall and the teen let out a shaky breath. "I’ll be out in about thirty minutes. I'll text you the address." 

Phil sighed and got up. He had a spare room in the house but no place to sleep in it. Good thing he had a sofa-bed in the living room. It’ll have to do for tonight, but he should plan on buying an actual one for the future so Mitch could get more privacy. 

He finished setting it up with a blanket and a few pillows, then grabbed his keys. This was going to be a long and depressing ride. 

* * *

When he arrived at the apartment complex, Mitch was sitting on the sidewalk beside two large suitcases, Phil put them in the trunk while the teen went to sit on the passenger side. 

As predicted, the ride was filled with a sad, awkward silence. Mitch held his knees close to him and buried his face in them, still shaking a bit. As they arrived at his house, he immediately buried himself in the makeshift bed, muttering a soft "thank you." Phil went to his room, wishing him good night on the way. He’d seen tear stains on the boy’s jacket.

* * *

Mitch woke up the next day to a strange smell. Since when could he smell the food from his room? Was his brother dangling his plate in front of him or something? 

Oh. 

Right. 

He wasn’t in his room, and he wasn’t in his house and he wasn’t smelling his mom’s breakfast. 

"Mornin’ sleepyhead," Phil called over from the kitchen. 

"Hey..." He rolled out of the bed groggily. "Wait. Shit. What hour is it right now?" 

"Uhm, ten-thirty." 

Mitch let out a large groan. "Boosh, I’m late for school." 

"Oh yeah they called on your cellphone, I told them you were sick." 

"Why?" 

"Because you had a shitty day yesterday and probably don’t need to deal with a bunch of shitty teenagers and teachers on top of it?" 

Mitch fell back on the mattress, sighing in relief. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, Phil was right. He really didn’t want to deal with people today. 

"Anyway, I made pancakes If you’re hungry." he pointed to the pile of flapjacks on the table 

"Oh," he walked to the kitchen, "I’m actually-" "lactose-intolerant, I remember. I went out and bought some soy milk. It's probably healthier so don’t worry about it." He pointed to an empty carton of it beside him. Mitch sat down on a chair, getting a plate and taking a curious bite of the pancakes. 

"Holy shit, this is pretty good." 

"Never had pancakes before or something?" 

"Nope, my parents always forget about the milk thing, so I usually skip breakfast. Speaking of which," he sighed, regretting what he was about to say already. "I should probably get back home since I don’t have any school." 

"Wait, what?" The man turned to him, worry shining in his eyes. "Mitch you just got kicked out, you’re not going back there." 

"Oh no, it's fine. This isn’t the first time it happened, I just needed to wait until they fell asleep so I could reset them, they try to break the tech gauntlet otherwise. My parents won’t wake up until one in the afternoon since they don’t have to work today." He said, trying to keep his voice casual even though he hated every part of this routine. "Sorry for making you haul all my stuff over here; in hindsight, it was pretty stupid of me." 

Phil pinched the bridges of his nose, a bit astonished by what Mitch was saying. "Listen, kid. Even if you reset their memories, I'm not letting you back there. Your foundation brushed off on your pillow last night, I can see your black eye. How many of those are you going to get before you decide it’s enough?" 

Mitch’s eyes widened as he checked his face with his phone. His bruises on his eye and neck clearly visible. Crap. He didn’t want to abandon them. They were still his family, even if they treated him like shit. But Phil was right; not living with them would probably be safer, and he wouldn’t have to worry about getting outed to Phil, granted that he reset everyone. This time making them forget him instead of his sexuality. 

He took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll stay here, if you let me. How much did the milk cost by the way?" 

"First of all, if I didn’t want you to stay, I wouldn’t have let you in. Second, I'm the adult here, I pay for groceries. Got it?" 

"Yes, boss." 

Phil laughed a bit at the formality. "Alright, third, you’re allowed to call me by my name when we’re not at work. We are, indeed, past that point. Anyway, if you truly want to pay me back for the milk, could you unpack your suitcases and fix the couch while I go buy some furniture. A desk, chair, bed and closet are enough right? Should I get a bookcase too? Oh, there's some ice packs for the eye, by the way." 

a slight smile crept his way on Mitch's face. "... A bookcase would be nice, yeah." 

* * *

It was about 11h30, and Mitch finished unpacking his stuff. He then wrote a note on the fridge saying he was going for a walk, which technically wasn’t a lie. It was just that the walk was going to be to his parent’s house so he could delete his existence from their memory. He took the spare key Phil left him and left the front door, clearly in a hurry. 

He just needed to make sure they couldn’t blackmail him with sensitive info. He was _Mitch Williams_ ; he couldn’t afford to get outed to his fans, not yet. Not on someone else’s terms. 

The walk took about an hour, which made him realize he only had thirty minutes to reset them and get out. He walked over to his parents on the couch, cans of beer scattered on the floor. He reset his mom, he reset his dad, now to find his- 

"Pretty bold of you to walk back in here after last night, Mitch." 

His brother, Jared, who was standing right behind him. Boosh. 

The older one punched him in the face, making Mitch fall on the ground, hard. "Going to explain what that ray you used was?" 

"Not if you keep hitting me I won’t. It doesn't matter, you won’t remember me anyway." He turned quickly and fired a reset on him, making him hit the wall and knocking him unconscious. He quickly ran out of the building. Not noticing the small red "ERROR" right beside his unconscious sibling’s head. 


	2. new furniture and a confrontation.

Mitch collapsed on his new bed, both ecstatic and exhausted. He and Phil had finished assembling his furniture. With the two of them, it had taken about four hours. Half of them were Phil teaching him _how_ to assemble the stuff, but who’s counting anyway.

Phil had been oddly patient with him. He wasn’t even angry when it turned out he’d been confusing his screws for an hour and had to restart the closet all over again. His old man would have probably screamed for hours, if he’d even bothered to help at all.

He liked being able to display his stuff too. Usually, he kept his more embarrassing things, like his Hatsune Miku poster, tucked in a box under a floorboard so no one would see, along with his wallet, hair gel, and other important things. Now his posters and figurines were standing proud for the world to see.

He was particularly fond of his desk. It was in a corner shape, long enough so he could use one side for his gaming and let’s plays and the other for schoolwork, which was incredibly practical. He couldn't wait to start gaming tonight; he’d really missed it in the past two days, plus it was usually an instant remedy for sadness, which he particularly needed these days, despite Phil’s endless attempts at cheering him up.

He wondered if his followers would question the change of scenery. Would he have to tell them all how he got kicked out? Nah, he’d just say he moved to a new house or something. He stretched in the luxury of a queen-sized mattress. He could get used to this.

He heard the front entry open and the sound of something being dropped hard on the kitchen table, making him jump. He slowly got up and opened his door. "You okay P?"

He saw the older man resting his arm on the kitchen table, looking a bit tired. "Uh, yeah. I was just dropping off the groceries. Forgot to get them yesterday."

Mitch was still tense from the noise, "Are you… angry at me? "

"No? " Phil looked at him, a bit confused. "Did it look like I was angry? "

"I mean, " he rubbed his neck. "you dropped those bags pretty loudly and I thought you might have been mad because of something. There’s always something I’ve done wrong, so I just assumed-" "Hey, stop talking about yourself like that." Phil put his hand on his shoulder, but Mitch flinched away.

He sighed. "You’re a great kid and there’s nothing you’ve done to make me angry, got it?"

Mitch rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever…"

He smiled a bit: happy the usual teenage jerk-talk was making a reappearance. Guilt never fit Mitch Williams anyway. "Of course, the damned bags were loud though, they’re about a hundred and thirty pounds, practically as much as your weight-"

"It’s heavier, actually."

Phil blinked twice at what the teen just said, He must have misheard him. "What?"

"I said it’s heavier, it’s a hundred and thirty, right? I’m a hundred and ten pounds."

The look that showed up on Phil’s face would have fit well in a horror movie. He tried to put up a smile, but clearly something was wrong. "Mitch…" his voice was falsely casual. Badly hiding that something was wrong. "When you said your parents always forgot about your lactose intolerance, did you mean literally _every single meal?_ "

"Uh, more like half… On the good days…" his tone seemed to grow more and more careful, as if his boss would somehow blame his weight on him and not the lack of edible food in his house. "Sometimes I could sneak in something from a restaurant, but my parents didn’t like it because they thought I was using their money and we couldn’t afford to. I wasn’t, I was using, mine, but they didn’t believe me."

Phil rubbed his temples to calm his forming headache. "Kid, I get that this has to suck, but this is not a healthy weight for you to have! " the worry was shown clearly in his face now. "Couldn’t you have at least tried to eat a little bit? Worst that can happen is vomiting and diarrhea, right?"

"I mean, I tried a few times, but then I’d immediately start to puke on the floor, and mom wouldn’t allow me to eat anything inside the apartment for the rest of the week because I had made a mess."

"Holy shit, Mitch." he sighed, eyes widening at every word. "This is some really bad stuff. Should we call a doctor or something? I mean this is-"

"Wait, no!" His voice hitched a bit in concern. He tried a softer tone. "Listen, I’m sorry I’m such a wreck, you don’t have to deal with it. I don’t want you to. "

"You’re allowed to have the basic right to a healthy life, Mitch! You’re honestly so underfed I might have called the police if you still lived with them! I don’t even know why I didn’t, to be honest!" His voice got a bit louder as Phil’s anger towards Mitch’s parents rose, but seeing the clearly scared look on Mitch’s face, he tried to calm down.

"The bill is going to be expensive…" He looked down at the ground, ashamed.

"That’s not really your fault, is it?" He sighed and looked at Mitch in the eyes. "Fourth rule; never think about the price of a necessity, I’m not crushed by dept or anything, I'll pay for this stuff, okay?"

"Okay…"

* * *

Mitch stood in the middle of the road, looking at a small purple-haired girl that should have been reset just a few moments ago.

"Is zapping people your solution to everything? "

Mitch stared at the purple-haired girl, eyes wide with terror. This couldn’t be happening. _Everybody resets._ If she didn’t, then what if…

What if…

No, It was fine. He’d just need a higher dose of it. He blasted her again with his usual smirk, but she kept talking.

He was getting panicked now, he blasted her one more time.

"You love to play the hero, but, really, you’re just some bully! "

The red ERROR kept flashing on her head, he thought he might have glimpsed it elsewhere. Maybe if he hadn’t run away so quickly….

_No. no, no no no **no!**_

****

**_"I’ll wipe you clean! "_** He shouted, but her little _friend_ jumped on him and got them both on the ground.

They fought, and the blue boy was messing with his gauntlet while doing it.

_"Let go! You don’t know what this thing does!"_

The kid’s thumb brushed a button, and a green light flew from his gauntlet. While they were distracted, he kicked at the other and answered the call he was getting.

Phil’s holographic face flashed. "Mitch? We’re seeing a glitch release from your gauntlet."

"Got it under control. _Don’t_ send backup."

"Just be careful. If that thing goes viral it could spread through the entire arcade."

While his boss was talking, he saw the glitch slip in through a lamp. He was fucked.

_"Oh,_ _boosh! "_ He yelled, getting his portal blast mode on his gauntlet. " I am _done_ playing with you two _whack-a-moles_ " He blasted one at the kids in front of him, who fell through it and into his van immediately.

"This is a _serious_ mitchuation, I can’t have you two making it worse!"

"Wait wait wait wait, seriously? A mitchuation?"

Her friend had a devastated expression smacked upon his face. "I used to look up to you... and now I don’t even know who you are!"

He looked straight at him, eyes burning with rage. "I’ll tell you who I am. I’m the guy who’s gonna send you back to the alley you crawled from, and this time? You’re gonna stay there… Where you belong."

He shut the door behind them and headed for the arcade. This day was going to suck.


End file.
